‘Each
generation must out of relative obscurity discover its historical
mission, fulfill it or betray it’ Frantz Fanon.

The
attainment of the biblical age of three scores and ten by Professor Wole
Soyinka is as good a time to assess therole and place ofNigerian
intellectuals in our society. For the purpose of clarity, perhaps, we
ought to try to graspwhat
an intellectual is.The
person of letters? The one that carries on with a pompous air of
affected knowledge? The bearded eccentric? The one that obfuscates and
mystifies instead of explaining and making it clear? The one that
‘blows grammar’, dogo turenchi? The prof? The one that is offended
when he is addressed by his name or simply as Mr or Ms Y? The one who
insists that he must be addressed as ‘Dr’ or ‘Prof’?The one that uses his specialized knowledge to confuse and
confound the unwary? The one that lends his name and signature, when in
privileged position, to what is patently an affront to common sense and
sound judgement?The
consultant on the make, in search of filthy lucre?

No,
I think not. The intellectual to my mind is one who is at once engaged
with his or her society and contributes in his or her own little way to
impart knowledge and lower the bar of ignorance. As a result of his
exposure to varied reading and other cultures, he is impatient that his
society ‘gets it right’ His restless spirit is constantly in
turmoil, raising questions, seeking explanations, accepting no easy
answers. While others acquiesce in the face of what is patently
injurious to the interest of the society, he raises his voice, he is not
afraid of the powers- that- be. A person of uncommon courage, he
confronts head on,theinequities of his society. He cannot be silenced. He suffers the
betrayal of those he thought ought to take up the cause.He understands the cowardice implicit in human nature, when faced
with adversity,particularly
wheninflicted or threatened
by the awesome power of the state. He knows some just do not share his
passion,and some are just
looking for what to eat and how to go about eating it.He knows that some of his ‘friends’ are in factagent provocateur, detailed by the powers that beto inform and help determine thebest way to compromise him.He
knowsfriends who crave to
be in the bosom of the establishment, the reigning regime intellectual
and palace fronts, because frankly, that is where the money is. A brief
stint serving the temporary whims of the current power holdershave put some on easy street for life andsome have been permanently seduced. But that is the easy way and
not his own way. He knows about the transienceof power.The
intellectual is no different from any other category in the society
except that in a particular field of human endeavour,he is adjudged to have excelled but that does not make him above
the society. He is only as good as his commitment to the mental and
social emancipation of his society. He wants his society to live up to
its potential and he does not apologise for it. He is not craven and a
quisling, he is not. Nonetheless, he is aware that the human nature
suffers from two fundamental burdens, the flesh and the material and he
struggles against his own limitations, fighting compromise and
surrender. This is the titanic struggle all human engage in with varying
degree of success. He knows that it cannot be easy for many, fighting
material deprivation and want,not
to succumb particularly in a society where the state is everything. But
he draws the line. He does not judge. Faced with egregious injustice, he
refuses to back down. This is the role the Wole Soyinkas of Nigeria have chosen.
There are not many quite like him, profile and all. Some are celebrated,
some not so celebrated. Some paid with their careers and worse. They are
in many professions. Our society needs this kind of people, and withthe sorry pass we have found ourselves in Nigeria, the need is
compelling and urgent. They are the conscience of the society, those who
speak truthto power.

I
was a student at GovernmentCollege, Ibadan,when the Nigerian civil war broke out.In August 1967, when the Biafrans entered the then Midwest, we were sent
home. Many bright students never came back. I remember Uchechukwu
Anyanetu, a class mate of mine,a
very bright student, one of those we used to refer to as an
‘all-rounder’, because he was good in all subjects. Mercifully, some
did come back, but they had three years to catch up. Many young people
in Nigeria today of course
have no memory of the civil war. They ought to read Wole Soyinka’s
‘The Man Died’ and of coursethe
accounts of the Biafran and Nigerian partisans,so they can make up their own mind what led to this terrible
tragedy.

Like
most people all over the world, I only know Soyinka from his writings,
though colleagues and students have asked me about him. I always say he
is ‘my brother’. I justify this claim the following way; His father
is from Isara. My paternal grandmother is from Isara. In fact,my father has a house there, where we sometimes spent some
holidayswhen I was a kid.
Though my father has passed on, our family link endures. My parents are
from Sagamu which is the metropolis of Remo division of Ogun state. All
Remo towns [Isara is one] speak the same dialect with varying accents.Wole Soyinka went to GovernmentCollege, Ibadan [GCI],so did I .I was once
interested in a career in Literature, after all I won the T.M. Aluko
prize in creative writing in my final year at GCI.But that is as far as I went, because I got lost in the social
sciences and could not retrace my steps. Or may be I was not good
enough.After I narrate all
this to my colleagues and students, they seem to forgive my license.

The
second book of Soyinka that I will like to recommend is ‘The Open Sore
of a Continent; A personal narrative of the Nigerian Crisis’ This is a
book that many complacent Nigerians ought to read because there are
those who habour the illusion that Nigeria cannot slip into
fascism and one- partyrule.Nigeria can, and the tell
tale signs are evident already. Indeed there are outstanding personages
in Nigerian politics today who will like nothing better than to turn
Nigeria into a one-party state, where all opposition is muzzled,
declared ‘subversive elements’, while they go on with the important
business of ‘national unity’ and ‘nation-building’.

I
met Soyinka once. It wasat
a public lecture on the campus of GeorgiaStateUniversity, Atlanta, in 1996. I gave
him my copy of his book. ‘The Open Sore of a Continent’ to sign.I was surprised that the event was not packed with thelarge Nigerian population in Atlanta.Having never met him, I thoughthe looked thin for a man of his height, and his face was fixed
with this melancholy look throughout the program. I wondered what
pressure he must be under. Who to trust among Nigerians around him, some
undoubtedly, agents of the Abacharegime
that was after him? He looked tense, ill at ease, and the melancholy
look hung on him even as he signed.I tried to take a measure of him. The organizers allowed comments
and questions.I commented
on the sparse assembly. He responded that the attendance would have been
larger if ‘free booze’ had been promised. That is an exact quote.

I
am happy that he has founded the Civic Forum. A thoroughly political
person, this will be his enduring legacy to Nigeria, to help found an
institution, funded and administered by Nigerians. Not one where people
depend on funding from the ‘international community’ There is no
free lunch. The captains of Nigerian industries and ALL who believe in
the ideal of a free and responsive liberal democratic society have a
stake in the Civic Forum;market
women, the artisans, the workers, students, professionals, ‘ordinary
people’ and all of us who just want a decent society so we can get on
with our lives. Most Nigerians, like most people all over the world,
have little to do directly with the government, but they justwant a society where it is possible to realize and pursue
happiness. They do not want their voice and choice predetermined by a
cabal where popular consent as determined in a free election is a
mirage. Where ‘elections’ are routinely held but there is no change,
where people who did not run for an office are declared ‘duly
elected’. That is a society where people have lost their voice.If Nigerians do not want a society like that, every one must see
to it that it is their bounden duty to struggle to have one. The
Soyinkas can lead but many must supply the sweat and intellectual
capital andALL be driven by
the same passion for the kind of society we want. And we must be willing
to make sacrifice and contribution to bring the idea to fruition. We do
not yet have this kind of culture in Nigeria, yet it is a sine
qua non for a liberal democratic polity. Nigerians are intimidated,
overwhelmed and frightened by the excesses of those who claim to speak
in our name. As a result, those in government believe they can get away
with anything and we are all powerless or we can be bought and
neutralized. In an underdeveloped society where want and deprivation
stare most in the face, it is hard to face the awesomecoercive apparatus of the government, particularly when the
culture ofthe rule of law
and due process has been badly vitiated and weakened for decades.The civil society is not strong enough and independent enough.The organized voice of the civic society as a counterweight to
the excesses of those in government is feeble, so those in government
feel they are unaccountable to no one. Witness the scandalous
embarrassment of the event of July 10, 2003 in Anambra state
or the cynical tampering withthe
electoral bill of 2001 AFTER the national assembly had passed it. If
people who perpetuated these acts knew that the Nigerian people will not
tolerate it and would call them to account, they would think twice, if
they knew there are severe penalties, including recall and removal from
office. Assistant Inspector General Ralph Ige would not obey an unlawful
order if he knew he would go to jail. The principalwho gave the order wouldnot
contemplate it either. A person can be drunk with power only to the
extent he feels he will not be held accountable.The only reason such an order is given is because the culture of
the rule of law is weak. The struggle to establish a liberal democracy
in Nigeria will rest
primarily on four fronts. A robust and vibrant civil society;a fearless judiciary ; a free media and most importantly the
vigilance of the Nigerian people. Freed from the jackboot ofthetraducers of
democracy of the ancien regimes, the Nigerian judiciary seems to berediscovering itself, particularly the supreme court under Chief
Justice Uwais Lawal and the Nigerian media has acquitted itself well,
relatively. However, we do not yet have an awareness of a civil society
with a nation-wide reach and influence that can serve as a watch dog and
with sufficient clout that no branch of government can feel safe with
any unlawful act. Witness for example the increasing audacity with which
the electoral process is tampered with, the selective compliance or
outright noncompliance with court ruling and arbitrariness in decisions
by the executive branchat
various levels. A strong civil organization, respected by the Nigerian
people, founded, funded and administered by themand with nation-wide credibility will be ideal. Its duty is to
raise the awareness of the Nigerian people vis-à-vis the actions of the
agencies of government under the rule of law and to deploy all available
resources under the law to fight any unlawful or illegal act. This is a
formidable task.. Wole Soyinka through the western regional crisis of
the mid 1960s, the civil war, the Shagari ‘landslides’, Buhari’s
incipient fascism,Babangida’s
interminable transition, Abacha’s murderoustyranny has kept faith with the Nigerian people. He has lent his
prodigious energy and talent to a good cause, a relentless quest for
good and responsive government in his life time.If he finds a way,working
with like-minded people,to
institutionalize the ideals of the Civic Forum in all the nooks and
crannies of our land, the foundation of the goal he spent half his life
in pursuit of, may yet take root.